Better Behavioral Health Care Coverage for Everyone

People with private health insurance who seek care for mental health conditions generally face higher coinsurance and more limits to coverage — including limits on the numbers of outpatient visits and inpatient days — than do those who require care for other health conditions. These restrictions reduce the use of mental health services and force persons who have severe mental health problems to bear crushing financial costs for necessary treatment.¹ Existing insurance limitations reflect previous experience. Efforts to extend parity coverage — equality of benefits — to federal employees in the 1960s failed as the use of services soared and . . .